Spectacular apparition of Halley’s Comet leads to media tales of cyanide poisoning from the comet’s tail; comet kills no-one. Mark Twain, who had been born during the 1835 apparition, wrote in his autobiography that “I came in with Halley’s Comet… and I expect to go out with it”. He did.

Sinking of the RMS Titanic, with the loss of 1,494 lives. Founding of the Royal Flying Corps (predecessor to the RAF) in UK. Presentation of Piltdown Man – an elaborate hoax which took 40 years to unravel.

Magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 12,000 people. Foundation of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), predecessor of NASA. First known pre-discovery image of Pluto. British Army tests world’s first prototype tank.

Foundation of the League of Nations. Grand Canyon is established as a National Park. Eruption of Kelut in Java kills 16,000. Arthur Eddington confirms predictions of General Relativity during total solar eclipse in Principe, off the west coast of Africa.

Assassination of Gandhi. Publication of the Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper, which showed that the Big Bang would create elements hydrogen and helium in proportion to their abundance in the early universe. Foundation of the modern state of Israel.

The Treaty of Rome establishes the European Economic Community. IBM sells the first compiler for FORTRAN. Founding of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Jodrell Bank radio telescope opens in Cheshire, UK.

Cuban missile crisis. Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro. John Glenn becomes first American to orbit the Earth in Friendship 7. Death of Marylin Monroe. First use of the term ‘personal computer’ in the media (New York Times).